A sense of inevitability creeps into the NL West race

The Giants were in a hurry to catch their plane for Phoenix after Wednesday night’s 8-3 victory over the Rockies. They get an off day in Arizona, which is a big deal to a many of the players who live in the Phoenix area.

They can see their kids who are in school and sleep in their own beds. If they dream about standing along a baseline for pregame introductions at a playoff game, they can be forgiven. It’s hard to imagine any outcome other than the Giants winning the National League West and facing either the Nationals or Reds in a Division Series.

With 19 games to play, the Giants have a seven-game lead against a Dodgers team that looks whipped. At the same time, Bruce Bochy is managing the Giants as if they have a one-game lead. He used seven relievers to get the final nine outs tonight, including Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo with a five-run lead in the ninth.

I doubt complacency will creep into the Giants’ dreams.

“We’re in a good spot,” winning pitcher Tim Lincecum said .”We’re just focusing on ourselves and having a good time and winning.”

Most of my game story (you can see the early version here) focuses on Lincecum’s second-half turnaround. He has been the Giants’ best starter since the break by ERA. He readily acknowledges he is not pitching great, but he has regained the confidence that he can get hitters out when he needs to.

The dwindling regular-season calendar and the closeness of the West title only feed into that confidence.

“Knowing now what we’re striving for and what direction we’re going into,” Lincecum said, “that motivation is a little bit deeper.”

A lot of people ask me what the Giants’ rotation as a whole needs to do to turn things around before the playoffs. The answer is simple. The starters just need to pitch better, as Lincecum has done. It’s about aggressiveness in the strike zone and trusting your stuff.

The way the Giants are hitting now, a staff-wide turnaround on the mound could make the Giants as dangerous as any NL team in the postseason.

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I didn’t spend much of my gamer talking about the offense, which staked Lincecum to a 5-0 lead before he threw a pitch.

Gregor Blanco, who led off and played center as Angel Pagan got a break, hit a leadoff triple and scored on a Marco Scutaro single. Brandon Crawford had a two-run double with two outs. He doubled again in the sixth and scored on another two-out hit, this by Marco Scutaro. Scutaro’s ninth-inning single started a rally that included a Hunter Pence RBI triple. Joaquin Arias hit a sac fly for his second RBI.

Crawford has been hovering around .246 for a while. The .250 mark, which would be a nice feather in his cap considering how he started the year, seems elusive.

He is doing a creditable hitting in a very tough spot in the National League, eighth, ahead of the pitcher.

“I’ve gotten more comfortable with it as the year has gone on,” he said. “It’s a tough spot to hit in, but I’m getting more used to it, more patient, learning when to expand the zone to try and get on base and let the pitcher bunt me over.”

A few other notes heading into the off day:

Blanco made a tremendous catch in the seventh inning to kill a rally with the Giants lead at 6-3. With Carlos Gonzalez on second base and one out, Wilin Rosario hit a drive to center off Santiago Casilla that I thought was out of the park, but Blanco put on the afterburners and caught it as he slammed into the fence.

Poor Hector Sanchez. He’s finding new and innovative ways to get his body dented this season. This time, as he slid home as the trail runner on Crawford’s first inning double, he was kneed in the chest by the Rosario as the catcher swung toward him to make the tag. Sanchez lost his wind and lay on the ground for a few moments before he was helped off the field. He stayed in the game and caught all nine innings. Rosario apologized, but Sanchez said, “No need,” because Rosario was only doing his job.

The Giants finished 7-2 while scoring 76 runs at Coors Field this year. One big difference between the Giants and Dodgers has been their play against West opponents. The Giants are 32-21 and the Dodgers 28-35, including an incomprehensible 6-12 against Arizona. The Giants also improved to 21-7 on the road in the second half. They have not lost a road series in the second half. That’s seven wins and one draw, their longest run of nonlosing road series since 2003.

Think about this: The Giants have gained 14 1/2 games on the Dodgers since May 27, when L.A. held a 7 1/2-game lead. The Giants are up by seven games with a magic number of 13 to clinch. “It’s a good start,” Crawford said, “but we’ve still got 19 to play.”